Short Mountain Cove
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 16 of the next 16 nights read 15:35 UTC
- A night
- $23–$25Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 42All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Short Mountain Cove sits along the shady banks of Robert S. Kerr Reservoir. Keep reading
Recreation
With over 250 miles of shoreline and 43,000 surface acres, R.S. Kerr has long been recognized for its outstanding fishing. Crappie, sand bass, catfish, and black bass in the lake reach record size. Boating and kayaking are popular activities in the area. A boat ramp is provided at the campground for easy access to the water. A variety of hiking trails wind throughout the hills and along the shoreline, offering additional activities for campers.
Facilities
Short Mountain Cove contains 42 campsites, 2 playgrounds, a basketball goal, boat ramp and courtesy dock.
Natural Features
Robert S. Kerr Reservoir is located within the Cookson Hills, on the Arkansas River in Sequoyah, Le Flore, Haskell, and Muskogee counties in eastern Oklahoma, US. It is about eight miles south of the nearest major town, Sallisaw, Oklahoma. The reservoir is impounded by Robert S. Kerr Lock and Dam at river mile 336.2 (km 541.1) on the Arkansas River, just a few miles below its confluence with the Canadian River. The lock and dam are part of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, which provides for barge navigation on the Arkansas River and some of its tributaries. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (918) 487-5252.
What the agency tells you
- Gates open at 6AM and close at 10PM - Check out Time 3PM, Check in Time 6PM - Quiet Hours: 10PM to 6AM - Camping is permitted in designated campsites only. - Each campsite is limited to 1 wheeled camping unit with up to 3 tents. - Camping is limited to 14 consecutive days within any 30 day period. This applies to all members of the camping party and the camping unit. - Campers must occupy the campsite at least once during each 24 hour period. Abandoned personal property may be subject to impoundment after 24 hours. - Each campsite may not have its own water spigot, some share with adjacent sites. - Campers shall keep their sites free of trash and litter during the period of occupancy and shall remove all personal equipment and clean their sites upon departure. - Fires must be contained within the fire ring or grill provided. These are NOT trash receptacles, please leave them free of food and litter upon departure. - Pets must remain restrained on a leash or penned at all times. Pets are NOT allowed on swim beaches or in bathrooms. - Grey water and sewage must be properly disposed of in the provided dump station receptacle. Disposal of any water or waste on the ground is prohibited. - Fireworks are prohibited. - Fishing and hunting are regulated by federal and state laws.
Once you have reserved and are occupying your campsite, if a Gate Attendant is on duty (Friday - Wednesday 4PM - 10PM), please take the time to check-in with them, otherwise a volunteer will check you in during their daily patrol of the campground. Thank you.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 42
- Hookups
- 41 electric, 42 water
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
Facilities
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Beach
55 of 82 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:35 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $23–$25 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 15:35 UTC · rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
43 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 41 mapped sitesAll 43 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 41 of the 43 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| 01 | standard electric | 50 amp | 77 ft | 178 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 02 | standard electric | 50 amp | 76 ft | 111 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 03 | standard electric | 50 amp | 76 ft | 55 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 04 | type not stated | 50 amp | 106 ft | |||
| 05 | standard electric | 50 amp | 99 ft | 162 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 06 | standard electric | 50 amp | 77 ft | 188 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 07 | standard electric | 50 amp | 77 ft | 224 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 08 | standard electric | 50 amp | 77 ft | 170 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 09 | standard electric | 50 amp | 77 ft | 105 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 10 | standard electric | 50 amp | 107 ft | 155 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 11 | standard electric | 50 amp | 107 ft | 59 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 12 | standard electric | 50 amp | 74 ft | 265 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 13 | standard electric | 50 amp | 74 ft | 217 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 14 | standard electric | 50 amp | 166 ft | 51 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 15 | standard electric | 50 amp | 29 ft | 248 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 16 | standard electric | 50 amp | 29 ft | 220 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 17 | standard electric | 50 amp | 162 ft | 78 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 18 | standard electric | 30 amp | 94 ft | 191 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 19 | standard electric | 30 amp | 94 ft | 213 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 20 | standard electric | 30 amp | 100 ft | 123 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 21 | standard electric | 30 amp | 130 ft | 235 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 22 | standard electric | 30 amp | 104 ft | 124 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 23 | standard electric | 30 amp | 78 ft | 78 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 24 | standard electric | 30 amp | 78 ft | 75 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 25 | standard electric | 30 amp | 111 ft | 216 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 26 | standard electric | 30 amp | 115 ft | 47 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 27 | standard electric | 30 amp | 78 ft | 87 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 28 | standard electric | 30 amp | 63 ft | 110 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 29 | standard electric | 30 amp | 99 ft | 206 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 30 | standard electric | 30 amp | 78 ft | 280 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 31 | standard electric | 30 amp | 78 ft | 358 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 32 | standard electric | 30 amp | 79 ft | 436 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 33 | standard electric | 50 amp | 63 ft | 110 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 34 | standard electric | 50 amp | 70 ft | 145 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 35 | standard electric | 50 amp | 70 ft | 203 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 36 | standard electric | 50 amp | 111 ft | 313 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 37 | standard electric | 50 amp | 90 ft | 416 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 38 | standard electric | 50 amp | 71 ft | 502 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 39 | standard electric | 50 amp | 64 ft | 560 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 40 | standard electric | 50 amp | 118 ft | 479 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 41 | standard electric | 50 amp | 64 ft | 589 ft | $23–$25 | |
| 42 | standard electric | 50 amp | 72 ft | 617 ft | $23–$25 | |
| PS1 | day use | 15 amp | yes | $50 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 43 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cowlington, OK
Typical weather
Typical October night 50°F, day 73°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 28°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Short Mountain Cove is in Oklahoma’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Josh Brecheen (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →